Malcolm McLaren: A Style Obituary

Icons come in many shapes and sizes, but big tends to be the operative idea. Sex Pistols manager and rock impresario Malcom McLaren, dead on Thursday at sixty-four, was considered by many — ourselves included — to be an icon of men's style. And, outsize personality that he was, McLaren probably considered himself to be one, too. This was, after all, the man who once said he singlehandedly invented punk rock — a disputed claim, to be sure, but there's little doubt that he did reinvent how to dress like a punk.

Talk about big ideas: McLaren named his London store SEX, and, along with co-owner Vivienne Westwood, turned the boutique into the epicenter of Teddy Boy culture — a punk aesthetic that developed perhaps even faster than punk rock itself. Tight pants (be they leather or literal tights), big T-shirts (be they atheist or missing the "T"), and even makeup — love it or hate it, this was a definitive style.

And while that youth quake at 430 King's Road continued to spawn generations of new punky subcultures and vintage-store bins, McLaren set aside the brash look of his youth — which was wasn't really all that brash compared to < target="_blank">his cohorts — to continually reinvent himself. His style evolved with the times like few non-musicians in the music industry ever did, and was ahead-of-the-time more often than most. McLaren was an early champion of Thom Browne as a force in fashion, and as late as last year he was designing for Supreme, the legendary New York streetwear imprint.